Political Landscape: Candidate criticizes PAC over mailing
Newport Beach City Council candidate Mike Glenn on Thursday decried a political action committee-sponsored mailer that brings up an expunged misdemeanor conviction from 2000.
The mailer, paid for by the Peninsula Small Business PAC, points to Glenn’s misdemeanor conviction for damaging a newspaper vending box in Florida when he was 19 years old.
Glenn, 36, has since had the crime expunged from his record, he said.
“I was a stupid teenager,” he said. “I beat up a vending machine and mouthed off to the cop who caught me.”
The mailer also said that Glenn was sued for failing to pay rent in Newport Beach and alleges that he does not pay taxes.
Glenn said he forgot to pay his taxes in 2008 and immediately paid them when the Franchise Tax Board notified him.
He also said the lawsuit was the result of a misunderstanding in which someone who was living in an residence in Newport stopped paying rent.
Glenn said he wasn’t living there at the time, but his name was still on the lease, so he paid the back due rent and the landlords kicked out the tenant.
“Nothing they wrote has anything to do with any of the stances I’ve taken on issues,” Glenn said. “They’re really doing residents a disservice trying to get them to focus on what I did as a teenager instead of what the issues are in Newport Beach.”
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Ameri, Greer face off on the radio
Newport Beach politics took another nasty turn on Sunday when discussions became heated between City Council candidates Phil Greer and Fred Ameri over campaign lawn signs during a KOCI radio show.
Greer, an attorney, and Ameri, a former planning commissioner and retired businesses executive, are running for the District 7 seat representing Newport Coast and Newport Ridge. Lawyer and Finance Committee member Will O’Neill also is vying for the seat. He was not present at the KOCI broadcast.
During the program, hosted by former Daily Pilot publisher Tom Johnson, Ameri accused Greer of stealing his campaign signs. Greer denied the allegation and Ameri shouted at him, according to a video of the exchange posted on YouTube.
Johnson suggested that the group take a breath and go on commercial break.
Greer repeated to Ameri that he has never touched any of his signs. Ameri then made an obscene hand gesture at Greer and left.
Later in the program, Greer accused Ameri of removing Greer’s signs and replacing them with his own.
Johnson noted during the program that politics from local to national races is in disarray and campaigning, even in local elections like city council, have been reduced at times to mudslinging.
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Council candidate amends disclosure form
A Costa Mesa City Council candidate has filed an amended economic interest disclosure form after his original document prompted a complaint to the state Fair Political Practices Commission.
Mesa Verde resident John Stephens, a partner with the Irvine-based law firm Stephens Friedland LLP, filed his updated Form 700 with the City Clerk’s office on Thursday.
That action came the same day an FPPC spokesman confirmed the state agency would review a complaint from city Planning Commissioner Tim Sesler that Stephens had failed to properly disclose information related to the income he receives from his law firm.
Sesler, who is backing candidates running against Stephens in the race, specifically objected to how, under the Form 700 section asking for the names of reportable sources of income of at least $10,000, Stephens wrote “attorney-client privilege” in his original filing.
In many cases, the names of such income sources have to be disclosed, Sesler wrote in his complaint.
Stephens, however, said he recently went through his law firm’s records and confirmed he had no sources of income that met the reporting threshold. He noted that on his new filing Thursday.
FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga wrote in an email Thursday that he can’t comment on open investigations but “steps taken to correct, mitigate and cooperate are all factors in determining any outcome and/or any potential penalty.”
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